As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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So, with that in mind (and this would have to be by resale to have a choice), what are your opinions on what are the harder reservations to come by -- and I also realize it depends on time of year -- if a property isn't your home resort?
Let's say I'm wanting to go to WDW for Christmas, yep, busy time of year. Which resort would you say books the quickest or you have a good chance of becoming waitlisted? And for us, we would probably want a 1-bedroom.
I know I've read others who have said that they've never stayed at their home resort and have always gotten to stay at another property that they fell in love with after purchasing. But, then they've also said they tend to travel during low crowd times. So, I'm wanting to know about the more desirable times...summer break, Halloween, and Christmas.
I would imagine you would be able to get ressies at both OKW and SSR during those times. We were able to get VWL near Halloween. Our home resort is SSR. Last year at Halloween we got OKW within the 2 month mark! We bought last year and converted our regular ressie to the DVC ressie. Hope this helps.
I would say that the most popular resorts seem to be BCV, BWV, and BLT. So getting these resorts at peak times, like during uber popular Christmas or Easter time , is probably the most difficult at 7 months out and will usually necessitate a waitlist. And, being that waitlists are generally easier to get when they're for 1 or 2 nights vs. trying to get a whole week somewhere, that's something to consider.
However, SSR and OKW will be the resorts with the greatest availability, like Julie mentioned.
So, if trying to buy into a harder-to-book resort, to take advantage of the 11 month booking window, IMO, I'd go with one of those 3.
I've got to be honest, I've had more problems in the past getting into resorts in early December than Christmas, as that's one of the major peak periods for DVC members to visit Disney. The points are low then and people can enjoy all the Christmas festivities, so that's why members tend to go then. We got into other resorts at seven months out for Easter 2011 with no problem as well.
I would say the other busy time of the year for the Beach Club and BoardWalk Villas are during Food and Wine Festival - that's the only time we've struggled to get in somewhere at the seven month mark.
If you wanted to go at Christmas or any other busy time i would reserve at my home resort at 11 months and then try for something else at 7 months. Worst case is you can waitlist and see if it comes through.
The time we've had a problem booking a "non-home" resort is Thanksgiving week (Thanksgiving night causing the most of our worries at 7 months out) and during F&W. All studios and one bedrooms seem to go quite early. I was able to get into OKW about 2 weeks ago in a studio for three nights (a Wed-Sat) but wasn't able to book any other weekends. Last year hubs and I were able to get into BLT the week after Easter with hardly any difficulty. But lots of CMs we spoke with that week said that the attendance seemed to be very low for the week after Easter.
Good luck making your decision. No matter where you buy into, you're always at a beautiful resort!
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I think it depends. If you don't mind going to possibly anywhere on property, and book within 11-7 months out. There should be a not much problem. We have a trip planned for Nov 14-21st. Only rooms available in 1 bedroom was at OKW or SSR or AKL. So we are trying OKW. I just kept an open mind that I was booking after the 7month window and I got what I got.
Thank you all for the very valuable information. When I really first started thinking about becoming DVC, my gut reaction was BCV. And since I know we'd want to be able to stay there during F&W or Christmas (or both ) this is pushing me further in that direction. As most DVC members, I'd love to have the opportunity to stay at a lot of the resorts. But, I also would want the advantage of being able to book 11 months out for BCV for popular times. Let me throw one more scenario out there; I imagine staying close to MK is highly desirable, too. Has anyone had much trouble trying to book BLT if it wasn't your home resort?
I think it depends. If you don't mind going to possibly anywhere on property, and book within 11-7 months out. There should be a not much problem. We have a trip planned for Nov 14-21st. Only rooms available in 1 bedroom was at OKW or SSR or AKL. So we are trying OKW. I just kept an open mind that I was booking after the 7month window and I got what I got.
Oh, and I would feel much the same if booking past the 7 month window. Of course, I would just take the attitude of "we're still going to Disney, right? " And I'm the type of person, too, that when sometimes given or presented with something that might not have been my first or second choice, I don't get into too much of a tizzy about it.
Thank you all for the very valuable information. When I really first started thinking about becoming DVC, my gut reaction was BCV. And since I know we'd want to be able to stay there during F&W or Christmas (or both ) this is pushing me further in that direction. As most DVC members, I'd love to have the opportunity to stay at a lot of the resorts. But, I also would want the advantage of being able to book 11 months out for BCV for popular times. Let me throw one more scenario out there; I imagine staying close to MK is highly desirable, too. Has anyone had much trouble trying to book BLT if it wasn't your home resort?
We've had no problem getting into Bay Lake Tower at the seven month mark (or below), which really surprises me. We've got in twice in early December, a busy time for DVC members to visit, and once in April, so we've always lucked out with it.
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DD and my DSiL with DGS Luke left this morning. They are staying at BLT and we got the reservations at 6 months. They were able to get a 1 bedroom with a theme park view. Our home is BWVs.
I think getting ressies at BLT inside 7 months is a better possibility as long as you're not looking for the "cheaper" rooms; i.e. the standard view Studios, etc.
The more "expensive" rooms like the 1-bedroom MKV, etc. are more likely to have availability simply due to the amount of points needed to stay there.
Obviously, standard views aren't impossible , but just something else to keep in mind.
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, is probably the most difficult at 7 months out and will usually necessitate a waitlist. And, being that waitlists are generally easier to get when they're for 1 or 2 nights vs. trying to get a whole week somewhere, that's something to consider.
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Kristie
) this is pushing me further in that direction. As most DVC members, I'd love to have the opportunity to stay at a lot of the resorts. But, I also would want the advantage of being able to book 11 months out for BCV for popular times. Let me throw one more scenario out there; I imagine staying close to MK is highly desirable, too. Has anyone had much trouble trying to book BLT if it wasn't your home resort?
" And I'm the type of person, too, that when sometimes given or presented with something that might not have been my first or second choice, I don't get into too much of a tizzy about it.
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